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FAA Tower elevation 4,263

You never know what you will find along each hike. At first I thought we had stumbled into a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but it turned out to be a FAA tower. Kind of spooky but nice views.

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Thursday, August 4, 2011 - I made a strategic and wise decision for this particular hike. Rather than lug a 35 lb. pack up and down tremendously steep mountains in the hot August heat, I decided to "slackpack" the two-day 32 mile hike that would take me from where I last left the trail at Unicoi Gap all the way into North Carolina to an area known as Deep Gap. What made my anticipation for this hike even greater is that my good friend, Bruce Bullock, agreed to join me. It is always nice to share time on the trail with others, but having one of my life long friends join me for two days of hiking was exceptionally nice.

To say that these hikes require planning is a bit of an understatement. Let me explain the plan for this particular trip... Bruce, who lives in Pinehurst, would drive to Clemmons and pick me up around Noon on Thursday. From there we would drive about 4 hours towards Franklin, NC and attempt to locate a gravel side road (U.S. Forest Service Road 71) outsid…

April 7, 2011 - I am very excited about the next section of my AT adventure since I get to share it with my younger cousin, +Grayson Deal. Grayson is actually going to complete the entire AT as a "thru-hiker" (the term "thru-hiker" means that you complete the entire trail all at one time) over the next 5 to 6 months as he raises money for the Children's Heart Foundation (CHF). Grayson has started an organization called +Hike 4 Heart (http://www.hike4heart.org/#!) and he has a goal of raising $50,000 for CHF before his journey on the AT is complete. Its one thing to commit to being a thru-hiker but to couple your efforts with raising money for a worthy charity is indeed a monumental and honorable endeavor. I have no doubt Grayson will succeed.

Although I did enjoy my "alone time" on my first hike, I am grateful that I will have some company for this next section (my wife is grateful too). Grayson and I have timed it up perfectly so that we will be …

It's April 11, 2014 and I'm ready to clip off some more miles on the AT. I have to admit that I'm a little apprehensive about this section due to the distance (32.4 miles) and the fact that my end goal of Clingmans Dome is the highest elevation point on the entire AT (6,643 ft.). Also this stretch of the AT doesn't have any "exit points" along the way...once you are out there, you're out there. There is no greater motivation than having no other options but to finish the hike. As usual, I put out some requests to see who wanted to join me on this trip and luckily one of my buddies, Kurt Kreuger, took the bait.

Kurt was driving in from the Charlotte area and I was driving in from the Winston-Salem area. The drive there was around 3.5 hours for each of us. Our plan was to meet up at Clingmans Dome on Friday around Noon, leave one of our vehicles there and then head over to Fontana Dam to start our hike. As soon as we stepped out of our cars at Clingman…